The Development of Soviet Society: Perspectives from Educational Experience. Keynote Addresses from the Horace Mann Lecture Series and the Paul Masoner International Lecture Series, 1972-1978.

Johnson, William H. E.

Historical, philosophical, and social perspectives concerning the development of Soviet society are presented. The concepts of orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationalism that were integral to Russian life for nearly one thousand years of history are discussed, and principles of socialism and communism that were inaugurated in November 1917 in accordance with Marxism-Leninism are described. Analysis of certain major areas of Soviet policy indicates that Russian tradition and contemporary social pressures have forced or persuaded the Politburo to depart from the guidelines of classical Marxism in several instances: (1) long-time retention of severe restraints on civil liberties; (2) reduction of trade-union authority; (3) creation of elite castes in government, management, diplomacy, the military, and even the arts; (4) failure to make a higher standard of living a real goal in any of the several Five-Year Plans so far adopted in the Soviet Union; (5) increased contradiction between mental and manual labor, and between urban and rural life; (6) dissolution of the Communist International and the failure to preserve a united front of the socialist nations; and (7) toleration of religious practices and the restoration of the Church to active participation in social affairs. Persistent problems which 60 years of Soviet socialism have failed to ameliorate are discussed. (SW)